A number of people believe that emotional problems cause stuttering but this is just one of many false beliefs about language difficulties. The reason that some of these myths continue is because for many hundreds of years there has been no clear answer as to why some people have this problem while others don’t. This has led to folklore stories around the world including the misperception in South Africa that stuttering is the result of a baby being left out in the rain or being tickled too much. Well, it turns out that no matter how much a baby gets wet or laughs too hard, doesn’t seem to make a difference in eventual speech patterns. That’s because scientists have recently discovered that the answer to why a person stutters actually lies in their genetic code. According to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the disrupted flow of speech may be due to mutations in one of three possible genes. This may explain why stuttering tends to run in families and will open up new possible treatment options for this disorder which affects approximately 1% of the adult population worldwide. Despite these latest findings, it might still be wise to bring the baby in out of the rain…